Greed and governance

Greed is good, said Gordon Gekko, the archetypical suave corruptor of good and the budding, aspiration driven young hero in the movie ‘Wall Street’. That was when the Wall Street was going great guns, in the late 1980s and 1990s, and capitalism in the United States and elsewhere felt as if the sky could not limit it. Two decades down the line, try telling that to those who have ‘occupied’ the Wall Street. They are questioning that premise in a pretty articulate manner. Why should the greedy fat big boys of the Wall Street have all the fun, they question, when the US economy is in poor shape, industry stagnating, unemployment running close to the double-digit figure and the country mired in unwinable war in unfriendly distant countries (which has compounded the economic woes manifold).

Back in 2008-09, the culprit banks were bailed out with the tax-payer’s money and kept afloat even as the top executives did not, quite shamelessly, choose to take any significant cuts in their compensation and the perks. Nothing seems to have changed, no lesson learnt. If anything, despite the apparent congressional wrangling between the desperate and breathless democrats on a survival lease (under threat of government lock down due to budget cut or similar emergency measures) and the republicans on leash by their tea-party masters, who have tasted Obama’s blood, the primordial urges and the anxieties of the capitalism underlying the dominant economic and political structure of the United States finds balancing individual greed of a few ensconced in the high street, with the long overdue delivery of public good to the middle and poor America (like a half-hearted attempt at the health policy reform that would benefit all Americans) difficult if not well neigh impossible. Any talk of reinstating higher taxes for the rich is like showing a red rag to those claiming to monopolise the spirit of free enterprise in that country.

Chetan Bhagat writes well. Argues in a persuasive manner. He says (TOI, 7 NOV 2011) that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with greed, but it should be regulated ! One can make money, be innovative and not break the rules of the game. America practises this principle, India only talks about it but fails to enforce it. And out comes words like governance’, ‘regulation’. Only it is unlikely that those operating the nuts and bolts of capitalism will have any real sympathy for such high-minded but naïve liberal talk, especially if and when that becomes more than that, i.e., attempts to fashion economic policies. American system appears to starry-eyed Bhagat as a fine self-governing complex mechanism, called a 'free' market economy, which works on honour system, encourages boundless individual/private initiatives competing in a free and fair environment, handsomely reward those with merit and relentlessly and efficiently pursues and punishes those who dare break such an ideal arrangement, way of life.

Unfortunately, those intrepid Americans at the barricades and blockades in New York, and others in Madrid and London don’t seem to share such optimism. For them 'governance deficit' is a fact that is impacting on their daily life that cannot be rationalized satisfactorily any more. Interestingly, in respect of vast tracts of India that have come to be painted red (for better or worse), even the intelligent among the Indian government agree that there has been a persistent deficit of governance vis-à-vis the private greed of the mining and other industrial interests on development (read land acquisition and deforestation) spree. Which is why there is widespread disaffectation among the inhabitants of these areas and the Maoist militancy is able to thrive for such a long time. So the gap between the greed and the governance has not been easy to bridge. Neither here in India nor there in the Western countries, especially, the United States. Peaceful coexistence of the two may be difficult to achieve anytime soon.